Six Nations debrief: England 38 Scotland 18

England kicked off their Six Nations campaign with a resounding win over Scotland at their Twickenham HQ. Here’s Metro’s key pointers on why the Red Rose came out on top.

Stu’s disciplined troops put Telfer brag to rights
The first hurdle safely negotiated – and with not so much arrogance. It was more a case of simply beating the team put in front of you, albeit pretty convincingly in the end.

Former Lions and Scotland coach Jim Telfer raised the stakes by labelling England as cocky show-offs and pampered believers of their own hype. But England did what they had to do and if there was a hint of swagger, it wasn’t without having to put in the spadework. It was always going to be hard to repeat the magic of last year’s trouncing of the All Blacks but, as a starting point for 2013, this is probably as good as Stuart Lancaster would have wanted – job done, but still plenty to work on and no hint of complacency.

The power of Farr-sight
If you keep the scoreboard ticking over, you’ve always got a chance. And in 21-year-old Owen Farrell England have the heir apparent to Jonny Wilkinson. Calmness personified and an unerring reliability has taken him to 127 points in just 13 Tests. Seven kicks from eight for an 18-point tally – that’s normally enough to win an international match in its own right.

Farr too good: Farrell was deadly with the boot (Picture: Getty)

Keeping the ball aliveEngland enjoyed 68 per cent possession and made 153 ball carries with 19 successful offloads. Scotland were forced to tackle hard (128 of them with only 19 missed) but rather than go to ground and take the hit, England’s ability to release at impact gave them real southern hemisphere-like momentum.

Not Tui bad from Billy
Billy Twelvetrees’ performance poses a selection headache for Lancaster. A try, yes, but also some penetrative runs and solid defence from the debutant inside centre which now means Manu Tuilagi can’t take an immediate return for granted.

Setpiece of the action
England’s backs enjoyed the space carved out by the grafters up front. A 100 per cent scrum success rate with 11 of their own-line- outs won and some trail blazing runs by number eight Ben Morgan and commanding lock Geoff Parling.